In a Q&A a month
ago about Fallout 3, Bethesda's Pete Hines made a vague, but
reassuring statement about the DRM in the RPG sequel, saying:
"Pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do
any--we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to
get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when
it comes to that stuff." Now an update on
Reclaim your Game indicates that this has turned out to be an exaggeration at
best, saying the game ships with SecuROM version 7.36.0006, and notes the
Bethesda Game Studios Forums have posts from many users unable to install
Fallout 3, who are apparently being told by customer service reps that they need
to uninstall any third-party CD-writing software to be able to run the game.
There's
another forum post for those who have SecuROM issues with workaround
instructions and a pointer to the
SecuROM Website
where there's a replacement launcher for Fallout 3, as well as a replacement
launcher for Far Cry 2. Thanks Mike Martinez and
Negative Gamer.

Fallout3's version of SecuRom just does a cd-check, that's it. It doesn't install anything. There are different revisions of SecuRom and the one they elected to use is only a disk check. I just went and checked after installing retail. For the record I'm running Daemon-Tools as well, it did not complain. One moron cries on a forum somewhere and everywhere rushes in with their pitchforks looking for a witch to burn, do your own research people.